LeSean McCoy: We have to make it easy for Josh Allen

Posted by Josh Alper on September 13, 2018, 11:27 AM EST

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Running back LeSean McCoy had a quiet opener for the Bills last Sunday as he ran seven times for 22 yards before the Ravens moved so far ahead that there wasn’t much point in running the ball or risking injury to a key veteran.

Quiet days from McCoy are never a good thing for the Buffalo offense, but it will be particularly important for him to put up a strong performance this week. First-round pick Josh Allen is taking over at quarterback and McCoy knows that the rest of the offense needs to step up in order to help the rookie avoid calamity.

“One thing I’m going to talk to the offense about, especially the skill guys, for the rookie quarterback to have a good game for them is to make it easy on him,” McCoy said, via the team’s website. “Hey, if he makes a wrong read and the ball is hard to catch, catch it. You might not get yards after the catch, but just catching the ball will give him confidence, moving the chains. In the running back room, making guys miss, breaking tackles, everything to give him the extra advantage is critical and big for this game and his confidence. He’s so young. If he gets going he gets more confidence each play, so that’s something I want to talk to the guys about, just executing and making it easier for him.”

Outside of McCoy, there aren’t many Bills offensive players with a track record that suggests they’ll be capable of lifting an inexperienced quarterback to great heights. That appeared to be part of the reason why the Bills didn’t go with Allen from day one, but plans have changed and we’ll see if the unit can rise to the occasion.

walker1191 says:
September 13, 2018 at 12:05 pm
What the heck happened. They were trending up last year and broke a long playoff drought, now 7 months later they seem to be the worst team in the NFL.

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Short form?
Last year’s team was overachieving Fool’s Gold; and then we lost a big chunk of the O-Line fairly unexpectedly.

The Bills team last year was not particularly better than the previous couple of decidedly average Bills teams. Thing is – we had a couple lucky breaks and backed into the playoffs.

Tyrod Taylor is not a TERRIBLE quarterback – he can certainly take care of the ball, and is good for the occasional flash of brilliance. Unfortunately – his performance in the playoffs was fairly indicative of his skill (Safe but mediocre). His contract was structured such that if we WERE going to continue forward with a new ‘QB of the future’ – his cost to the cap was way outside what a ‘veteran backup’ would cost. So the Bills management decided to move on.

Trading Cordy Glenn wasn’t necessarily a bad idea – he is a dang good player when available, but he spent almost half of the last two seasons off the field with injuries, though. We thought we had enough depth to work without him. Problem is – we ALSO lost Ritchie Incognito to insanity and Eric Woods was forced to retire for medical reasons in the offseason, and that was two bodies I *don’t* think the front office was prepared replace this season. So we went from a Pro-Bowl O-line to ‘uh – who’s that guy?’

Defensively – we lost EJ Gaines to free agency, and picked up some new talent that has to mature. We’ll see how that fares.

Otherwise – they’ve taken the cap hits of a LOT of contracts the Bills have moved on from – just to clear the books for next season.

To be perfectly honest (and I’m hoping its NOT just my homer glasses), I don’t think the Bills are *quite* as bad as the Ravens game made us look. Take an arguably elite D and run them over a scratch o-line that hadn’t played a game together – and YOU see what happens…

(And I don’t know WHAT to say about Nathan Peterman, other than in training camp and preseason play, he looked better. But some people can’t handle the pressure of being under the bright lights, and I’m thinking Nathan may be one of them.)

At this point, though – the only way out of the woods is through. So on to the next game…

I feel bad for Allen. No rookie QB should start under these circumstances. Playing behind that Oline. Playing the toughest schedule possible. Playing without real talent at receiver. Playing with a running back who missed an important part of training camp and preseason. And playing for a head coach and GM pair who don’t seem to know what they’re doing. This experiment in Buffalo shouldn’t last very long, I hope the Pegulas are seeing this.

I’m glad someone sees it is not all peterman. Got real tired of the posts regarding him and Tyrod. We have a young team though who do have a lot to learn. And I’m so worried about this move with Josh. I hope it’s the right choice because if we lose him bc we don’t have protection for him then this city will go insane with anger.

This is the problem with firing coaches on a regular basis. They coach with concern for their own well being and not the future of the team. I like McDermott and I can’t blame him, but this is not a great move for the long term health of the franchise.